Stats on death/injury through electrocution or fault.

paturback · May 18, 2011

Hi just wondered if anyone had any up to date UK stats on death or injury caused by electrocution or fires caused by electrical faults resulting in death or injury.
I have seen stats on domestic house fires but these were not specific as to the cause.

Any pointers much appreciated

Adam W · May 18, 2011

I don't know how accurate the stats on house fires caused by 'an electrical fault' would be anyway - one of my college lecturers had a theory that the fire brigade would put 'electrical fault' or 'suspected electrical fault' when they couldn't think of a better reason, and it sounded slightly more intelligent than putting 'act of God'.

MarkieSparkie · May 18, 2011

Hi Patuback, This may seem unbelievable but true, there is no government department collecting and collating these statistics.

UK averages in EU data are extrapolated from the data of over twenty other EU countries.

The most "up to date" UK data (2007) is available at the link below.
http://www.esc.org.uk/industry/polic...ch/statistics/

egginyourface · May 18, 2011

ETCI Fatal Facts

paturback · May 18, 2011

That makes for interesting reading

2. Electric shocksii:

People receiving a mains voltage electric shock per year (18-65): 2.5 million*

Of whom had a significant injury: 1.2 million**

Of whom were admitted to hospital: 200,000

And this is how they arrived at those figures??

ii *809 interviews were conducted with adults aged 18-65 from 23 to 29 July 2010 via Ipsos MORI's Capibus, the weekly face-to-face omnibus survey, using a nationally representative quota sample across Great Britain. The results have been weighted to reflect the known profile of the adult population in Great Britain. Based on a confidence interval of +/- 3.5% and the sample size of 809 the actual number could vary between c1.3 and 4 million adults aged 15+.

oh and

**Based on a separate survey of 1024 adults aged 18-65 in Great Britain who have personally experienced an electric shock that resulted in injury while at home or in the garden in the past five years, interviewed via Ipsos online panel 25 June - 2 July 2010

and further..

iii Data supplied by the Department of Communities and Local Government, 11/02/10. On the advice of the Product Safety Division of the ESC

I think I need to be added to those stats just for the shocking state of it all lol
So it seems the only stats available are from the same organisation making shed loads of money out us!

paturback · May 18, 2011

egginyourface said:
ETCI Fatal Facts

Thanks egg at least Ireland have a database of fatal electrical accidents also makes for some interesting reading.

Deleted member 26818 · May 19, 2011

Here are the stastistics for fatalities from accidental exposure to electric current in England & Wales, as provided by the then Government's national Satistician for 1994 to 2003:
1994-37.
1995-42.
1996-36.
1997-39.
1998-37.
1999-50.
2000-41.
2001-34.
2002-24.
2003-25.
Unfortunately these figures do not show whether the fatalaties occured in the home, at work or elswhere.
During 2003 for instance, there were 12 members of the public, and one employee killed through electrocution on the railways.
There were some figures produced for fatalities in the home, although they decided to use 1st of April as the start date instead of 1st of January:
2001-2 4.
2002-3 5.
2003-4 3.
2004-5 10.
2005-6 13.
These figures again provided by the Government's national Statistician, and cover the whole of Great Britain, not just England & Wales.
The figures are very strange, as during the launch of Part P the general concensus from the ESC, Rospa and the Government was that there were 30 fatalities each year caused by electricity in the home.

Phil · May 19, 2011

i would email the electrical safety council mate. they should be happy to email you any stats back that they have on electrocutions etc

paturback · May 19, 2011

phil7677 said:
i would email the electrical safety council mate. they should be happy to email you any stats back that they have on electrocutions etc

Yes phil but do really think they will give me anything other than the seemingly concocted figures they provided here?
Statistics : Electrical Safety Council

I didnt want to turn the thread into a rant but I'm genuinely and perhaps naively shocked at the lack of hard independent recorded and documented facts available. Surely if safety was the ESC prime concern then at the very least you'd expect them to have a database similar to that of the Irish where specific incidents are recorded.
I find it very hard not to be cynical when the only figures available are provided by an organisation who have a huge commercial interest namely the NICEIC

Engineer54 · May 19, 2011

paturback said:
I find it very hard not to be cynical when the only figures available are provided by an organisation who have a huge commercial interest namely the NICEIC

And that is why i rarely give any or much credence to most reports/surveys/statistics that comes accross my desk. They are mainly produced by those that have outright vested interests, or by organisations that have been commissioned to present the conclusions they would like to see. These things are like creative accountancy, .....like figures, they can make these reports and things say whatever they want them to say!!!!